Report: Trump's 2005 Tax Return Shows Earnings of $150 Million, $36.5 Million in Taxes

MSNBC and investigative reporter David Cay Johnston released two pages of what they said was President Donald Trump's 2005 tax return, showing that Trump earned more than $150 million and paid $36.5 million in taxes. Before the report, the White House issued a statement with a slightly different figure, saying Trump made more than $150 million in income in 2005 and paid $38 million in income taxes.The White House said in the statement before Maddow's show that saying that publishing those returns would be illegal -- a charge Maddow said was not true. "You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago," the White House said in a statement.Trump has long claimed he was under audit and refused to release his returns during the campaign. He's the first president in decades to decline to release the records.Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, said on the Rachel Maddow show that he received the documents in the mail. He published an analysis of those pages on his website, DCReport.org. Multiple news outlets said they couldn't verify their authenticity, but the White House statement seemed to indicate they were genuine. The documents showed Trump and his wife Melania paid $5.3 million in regular federal income tax, about a 4 percent tax rate. But they paid another $31 million in alternative minimum tax, known as AMT. The president has also called for the elimination of the AMT. Johnston also told Maddow he suspected Trump might have sent the returns himself."Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," the White House statement also said. "That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that."Despite being a campaign issue pushed by his opponent Hillary Clinton, Trump has said the American public wasn't interested in his returns and said little could be learned from them. But full returns would contain key details about things like his charitable giving, how much he made each year and possibly foreign investments.The report is the latest look at Trump's income. The New York Times has previously reported that Trump reported a massive $916 million loss in 1995, which enabled him to avoid paying income taxes for decades.The White House has not said whether or not the president plans to release his returns while he's in office.  Continue reading...